12/04/2024 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm Free Wake the Dust by Rita McInnes Jane Harper (The Dry) meets Nick Cave in backroad noir and beyond. When burnt-out Aussie nurse and wannabe writer, Ella, flees her suffocating life in Melbourne for a housesitting assignment on a remote rural property, she is thrust into a brutal and unfamiliar landscape. Her budding friendship with Tom…
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04/06/2024 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm $10 Original Twin by Paula Gleeson Two sisters May and June couldn’t be more different. May is quiet, self-conscious withdrawn; June is boisterous, beautiful, magnetic…and missing. It’s been a year since June disappeared, a year of May waiting for her to turn up with an explanation of where she’s been and why she left. But with
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28/04/2024 @ 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm $20 Sanctuary by Garry Disher Grace is a master thief, specialising in valuable stamps, watches and jewellery. She never stays long in one place, so when she’s recognised at a Brisbane stamp expo, she must go on the run again. But she’d like a shot at a normal life, and settles in the Adelaide Hills, where she
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05/03/2024 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm $10 Kind of Sort of Maybe… but probably not by Imbi Neeme A charming, nostalgic, quirky, uplifting novel of people young and old finding their tribe, gaining courage to be themselves and perhaps falling in love, too.Kind of Sort of Maybe… but probably notLibrarian Phoebe Cotton lives with misophonia. The sound of other people crunching an
In Conversation with Imbi Neeme | This event has now been cancelled Read More »
07/02/2024 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm $10 Elizabeth Coleman Elizabeth Coleman is a renowned screenwriter who has written on every season of Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and Ms Fisher’s Modern Murder Mysteries. She is also the author of the hit play Secret Bridesmaids’ Business and co-created the much-loved ABC drama Bed of Roses. Her first novel, Losing the Plot, came out through
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03/12/2023 @ 10:00 am – 2:00 pm Come along and experience our Maker Market & Book Sale just in time for Christmas: Calling for stallholders | Expression of interest > Free entry View our stallholders. Stallholders Book Sale We will also be hosting a book sale in the Library on Saturday 2 & Sunday 3 December. These books have been donated to
BMI Summer Maker Market Read More »
02/12/2023 – 03/12/2023 Free Image: above Clem Onojeghuo Saturday 2 & Sunday 3 December, 10am – 2pm This event is an important fundraiser for the Ballaarat Mechanics’ Institute. Venue: Library, Ground Floor Book Donations In the lead-up to the Book Sale we are happy to take book donations to assist in raising funds for this grand old beauty. We
11/04/2024 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm $10 Leah Kaminsky Leah is a physician and award-winning writer. Her debut novel, The Waiting Room, won the Voss Literary Prize. The Hollow Bones won both the Literary Fiction and Historical Fiction categories of the 2019 International Book Awards, and the 2019 American Book Fest’s Best Book Award for Literary Fiction. She is the author of
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21/03/2024 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm $10 Felix Schmidt is backpacking on the Camino de Santiago when he meets the love of his life, the beautiful French Pascaline. He brings her back to Australia where he joins a new firm of management consultants. Deeply engrossed in he company’s growth, he neglects Pascaline. She believes his addiction has reduced him as a person,
In Conversation with Noel Braun Read More »
21/02/2024 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm $10 ‘The Chipilly Six were extraordinary men in extraordinary times. Lucas Jordan reveals a wider story of Australia’s Great War veterans as they battled a nation forgetting, a bitter Depression, another World War and beyond. This is a remarkable insight into a vanishing world’ — Bill Gammage, Emeritus Professor, Humanities Research Centre, ANU. On 9 August
In Conversation with Lucas Jordan Read More »
Fundraiser for Ballarat RSL & BMI
$33 per person
Minerva's Secrets Night Tours
Tue 19 May with special visit to Lantern Vaults
Tour 1 at 7pm – Tour 2 at 9pm.
Calling for Pre-loved books
These donation assist in our Library Fundraising Activities
We can take delivery during regular Library operating hours. See website footer.
Spring Season, History Talks:
Ballarat's Henry Lawson - The Dragon's Den - Gold! Gold! Gold!
Wed 3, 17 & 24 September, 5.30pm.
Bubbly on arrival featuring quality items from our Vintage Shop
Sunday 6 September at 2pm - Cost $65
The Ballaarat Mechanics' Institute 2026 Calendar
Featuring illustrations from our Heritage Book Collection $40
Your gift will be tax-deductible this financial year if you make it before June 30.
Like many organisations the BMI faces significant funding challenges.
